Gone In 60 Seconds
by flashpenguin
Summary: How long does it take to make an impact on someone's life? Ashley ponders the answer as she recalls how Emily touched her life, while at the same time coming to a life-altering decision. 7th in the "Bluer Than Blue Series".


_My submission for the Silver Screen Challenge. And I have to admit that this story was a challenge on ALL levels! This is the first story I've written in 27 years that does not have a song prompt and it involves Ashley Seaver and her decision to leave the BAU after Emily's untimely death. This is also the 6__th__ story in the "Bluer Than Blue Series" and follows "Vole" "Tonight I Wanna Cry" "Chasing The Moon" "I Miss My Friend" "Sand and Water" and "Calling All Angels"._

**Gone In 60 Seconds**

Sixty seconds wasn't a lot of time to make an impact in anything. Maybe enough time to warm a cup of coffee in the microwave or go a mile in a car. But was it enough time to make an impact in someone's life? Or even a permanent impact?

How long did it take? A minute? A year? A lifetime?

Ashley Seaver had her doubts and why shouldn't she? She had had a lifetime with her father and the impact that he made on her life was disastrous. A year at the FBI Academy had changed her life…for the better? Well, that remained to be seen. A minute in the life of Emily Prentiss was long enough to knock her world off its axis. For good.

Okay, maybe it hadn't been long enough to rightfully call Emily her "friend" but she wanted to think that they had developed something more than a working relationship. That didn't mean that there wasn't a little bit of hard feelings left over from screwing up and Emily wanting her gone, but they had called a truce.

She understood where Emily had been coming from…sort of. JJ had been transferred without being given so much as a minute to say good-bye to the friends she had come to love as a family. Before she could think, she was taken out of the Academy and thrust in the middle of an investigation she couldn't make heads or tails of.

She had no idea why she was there. And she knew for damn sure the team didn't want her there, but did she have to screw up in front of the professionals?

She could handle the cold shoulders from the team, but there was something in Emily's eyes that made her feel lower than dirt. If ever there was a time she wanted to cut and run, the minute they arrived back at Quantico was it. Of course it didn't help that she was right around the corner when Emily confronted Rossi about her performance.

So, she laid low…real low. And when she was transferred back to the Academy…well, that had to be the happiest day of her life - aside from when she found out she was graduating. Her faux pas hadn't ruined her chances to arrest the bad guys.

She got flowers and notes from the team - and one she least expected: Emily Prentiss.

The note was sweet and short and to the point. And it also contained an invitation to dinner.

Baby steps.

Scared and nervous, she had met the legendary profiler and daughter of an ambassador - with no less than two escape routes planned if things went wrong. But nothing did. It was good. Maybe even perfect.

They had talked about growing up ostracized from their parents and having to downplay the role their parents had made in their lives. They also had to work harder than most to prove that they were worthy of the good things in life and how they beat themselves up over failing.

But more than anything, they shared the inability to trust. Emily's was from moving and something dark that she didn't want to talk about. But it was in her eyes. Ashley knew that look - forlorn and lost…looking for an answer that would never come no matter how many nights she prayed and begged. Someone or something had hurt Emily and though there was the part of her who wanted to know the who and what, she knew when to keep her mouth shut.

But that aside, they had formed a bond. And though they would never be as close as the team had been with JJ, she had been accepted. There would be a place for her when she came back from the Academy. For once, she felt like she could fit in.

A couple times a week, Emily and Pen made it a point to take her out to dinner - and once, Reid took her to the movies. She could get used to fitting in. Once she graduated, she was going to apply to the BAU. She had found her niche. And then she could work side by side with Emily and Rossi and the rest of the team.

But her dream was gone in sixty seconds.

An ambush. A gunman the team hadn't profiled had ended the life of a woman she had come to love as a sister. No one had seen it coming, so to say that it was a shock was an understatement. From what she had read later, the team went in to apprehend the UNSUBs and in the hail of gunfire, Emily was hit.

One minute from the time they entered the house to Hotch yelling "Officer down!"

One minute to get Emily resuscitated to get her transported.

One minute from the time they got her opened up on the table to extract the bullet.

One minute to declare her dead.

She had gotten the phone call…she couldn't remember from whom. One minute she was sitting in her room studying profiling and the next she was hit with news that Emily was dead.

She didn't know how long she stared off into space while holding the receiver. It wasn't as long as she cried that night.

She had been asked to speak at Emily's funeral, but what could she say? She had spent time with Emily, but that didn't mean she knew her. They had talked, but it was nothing that she wanted to repeat to a crowd in a church. She debated before finally agreeing to say something.

Standing in the church at the podium had to be the scariest moment of her life as she delivered the words she had written late at night after tossing and turning. Did they make any sense? She would never know. Her voice had clogged with tears so many times, she wondered if she had gotten one word out.

She blamed herself. She should have been there. Morgan and Reid had assured her that having another body there wouldn't have made a difference, but what if it could have?

She would never know.

Standing at the foot of Emily's grave holding a bouquet of Lilies of the Valley and wondered why life was so unfair. There was no rule that it was supposed to be easy, but did it have to be so damn hard? Maybe it was true what her father had told her in their last talk - she was cursed and brought bad luck to everyone she met. She was his bad penny and anyone who crossed her path would feel it. She thought she could break the circle, but she hadn't. Now she was going to have to it herself. She was going to have to leave the FBI. It was the only way to save the rest of her friends.

She had read once that when an earth day was compared to a day in heaven, man was only here for a minute. And maybe it was true. Because sometimes it only took sixty seconds to change someone's life and make an impact to last forever.

Emily's minute had changed her life forever.

Laying the flowers on the tombstone, Ashley stood back. Wiping a tear with the back of her hand, she forced a smile.

"I'm going to miss you, Emily."

Then she turned on her heel and left.


End file.
